Finding stock images and crediting everything you use in your layouts and photo manipulations can be a confusing concept for many people new to online games or to games that require proper crediting and use of stock! Here on HP we have pretty strict rules about what our players can and cannot use for their images, so it is our hope that this guide will help everyone understand what to do!

In order to make things convenient, here are the rules for stock and crediting on HP:

Full picture credits are required on all photomanipulations (this includes all layout photos, horse and dog images, and all layouts sold in auction). Every photo, drawing, all lyrics, poems, quotes, or text taken from somewhere must have full and accurate credits on the picture. This does not include fonts and brushes where the creator does not require credit, and does not include crediting the program that was used to make the art.

All pictures used in photomanipulations must be STOCK and be allowed on SIM games. If it is your own personal photo, please say that. This means celebrity and movie photos cannot be used unless they are stock photos (they usually are not). If you are unsure if you are allowed to use a picture, contact the photographer. When in doubt, ALWAYS ask a mod or admin before you post it on HP.

Credits must be in URL format (user.deviantart.com not user@DA)

Graphics and Layouts posted in the graphic auctions must have full credits on the image or in the description, or link to a full image with legible and complete credits.

WHAT IS STOCK?
Everyone knows about copyright. All of your work that you post online is copyrighted to you; and that is why websites are allowed to delete or ban people for claiming your work as their own, or referencing your work without your permission. The same license that protects your work does go for other people's work, all over the web. Remember that!

Creative Commons is the sister to the copyright. It is still a license that says "I MADE THIS. YOU CAN'T SAY YOU MADE IT. You can, however, use it."

Creative Commons is broken into several tags, and these tags dictate how the image can be used. More than one clause can be added. (All of my stock is uploaded as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial). Here is what the different tags mean:

ATTRIBUTION - Credit the creator. Usually the uploader will provide how they would like to be credited. Most people on dA require a link back to their dA profile. Everywhere else, it's a safe bet to credit the username or given name and the site you found it on.

NO DERIVATIVE WORKS - In short, this means you CANNOT use it for art of any sort. You most commonly see this on images intended to be used for journalism and the like.

SHARE ALIKE - You must upload the resulting work under the same license as the image. The only good these are for artists, are for those posting more stock. For example, you could take a SA photo to use for a lineart, and then upload the resulting work in the stock images category on dA for the public to use. As far as photo manipulations for a SIM game, this is probably not your best bet.

NON-COMMERCIAL - You cannot use the resulting image for profit. If you have questions about what constitutes as commercial use, it's best to contact the photographer. It is very rare that stock providers have a problem with game-currency, as it has no real-world value, but it's always safe to ask. For the common artist, non-commercial creative commons is perfectly fine. On HP, unless the artwork is for the actual game to use (like our banner or our default images), you are fine to use it in your layouts or on your animal pages. This concept can also apply to fonts that you download and want to use.

Most stock you see on dA will be Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial, or Creative Commons Attribution. These are also the licenses you should look for when you're looking for references.

dA has one of the easiest to navigate stock libraries I've ever seen. Begin your search here. On the left hand side you will see categories to further narrow your search. Put your search terms in the search bar at the top and go.

For example, let's search for warmbloods. Type "warmblood" into the search bar and hit enter and you'll be taken HERE. Currently, 2,271 images of warmbloods doing all sorts of things that are correctly licensed for artists to use however they desire. 3,501 arabs. 4,721 Quarter Horses. 3,481 Thoroughbreds. Chances are there is a picture for whatever your mind can come up with!

I have several thousand pictures in my favorites of horses at liberty on my main account.

The only thing to consider with dA is most users have a list of rules. Most providers here also require you to notify them of use by sending them a link to your work either in a note or posted in the comments on the picture you used. This means you will have to have a dA account. This is as simple as copying the URL to your deviation and posting "I used this here: (and paste your link)." Other common ones are against works depicting violence or sexuality and that you cannot use their work offsite (such as on SIM games like HorsePhenomena.com).
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On flickr,
Let's take this lovely Iberian boy for example. Look on the right hand side and scroll down until you see "License." and you'll see three symbols (a person [Attribution], a dollar sign with a line through it [non-commercial] and a circle arrow [Share-Alike]). Hover over them to see what they mean. The last one is "Share Alike" which means you can ONLY use this if you upload your work under the same license.

Example Two: Wonderful dressage photo of a lower level pair. Scrolling down to the License, you will see only ONE symbol (Person = Attribution). This photo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution. This means you CAN use it as reference for art and you MAY use it for commercial work as long as you CREDIT the photographer. To credit this photo you would have to put the full link to the artist's page on Flickr.

Since it can be difficult to remember who did what on Flickr, I suggest saving the image to your computer with the artist's name. This will be saved as JDOTHarwood 1 on my computer. Most photographers on Flickr don't require you to share your work, but you should always still check.
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Morguefile is a personal love of mine. EVERY photo on morguefile is uploaded under a unique license of its own. You may not claim anything on the site as your own. However, it is non-attribution (you don't have to list the username of the person who did it, although it would be nice of you), commercial work and derivative work friendly. Keep in mind that although Morguefile does not require you to attribute the image to anyone, Horse Phenomena still does. Staff here still needs to be able to check that your image does come from where you say it does.

Its search engine however... is kinda... not that easy to navigate. If you have something specific in mind, I don't really suggest it. If you're looking to just build a library of usable images some lazy afternoon and have time to browse, it is your BEST friend. Since it is no-holds-bar, it can be difficult to find high-quality images but if you dig long enough you can find some real gems!

Take this for example. You may recognize it as the horse default image and welcome page!

SXC is another good resource with not the best search engine. You'll see a search box on the left hand side, and enter your search words there. It's best to keep it pretty general.

Once you have your search pulled up, the first row will be for iStock (a pay site) so just ignore those ones. It's the images below that you're after.

Here's an example from searching for “horse.” There's the little box to the right with the green header titled “photo details” that gives you the licensing. This one is Royalty Free, which means it's pretty much the same licensing as Morguefile. Keep in mind that although SXC may not require you to attribute the image to anyone, Horse Phenomena still does. Staff here still needs to be able to check that your image does come from where you say it does.
I freely admit, I've never used SXC much, so if anyone has anything to add, PM me at #724!

Although there are numerous other pattern websites out there, colourlovers is by far the most popular on HP, so this guide will only cover colourlovers.com. For other sites, please check their individual copyright and crediting rules, and feel free to message a moderator if you need help.

For this tutorial, I am going to use THIS pattern. Now to credit it properly, look at the right-hand side of the page and scroll down a bit. You will see a section called PATTERN LICENSE. This tells you a) how you can use the pattern cool.gif who needs to be credited if you use the pattern. This is what the pattern license looks like for the pattern I've selected:

It says "Credit must be given to Pauline Jones & symea." Please note that there are TWO names listed! One (Pauline Jones) is for the person who colored in the pattern. The other (symea) is for the person who created the pattern design or template. Both of these names MUST be credited! If you only include one or the other, you credits are incomplete and incorrect. The correct format for crediting a colourlovers user in full URL format is:

For colourlovers (or other patterns), it is okay to give the credit as a link on your page. This link needs to directly go to the user on the colourlovers site.

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HOW TO CREDIT YOUR IMAGES ON HORSE PHENOMENA
DEVIANTART: username.deviantART.com
FLICKR: flickr.com/photos/username (this is the preferred format) or flickr.com/username (older format, usually re-directs)
MORGUEFILE: Morguefile.com/creative/username
SXC.HU: sxc.hu/profile/username
COLOURLOVERS: http://www.colourlovers.com/lover/symea
Some of this has already been mentioned, but in order to make sure it's fully understood, and so you can make double sure to avoid any crediting mistakes, I am going to go over it all again (with some new stuff added in)!

First, you must remember that on HP we require FULL photo credits. So this means that you must put the full URL of the photographer. This can be a little confusing. So let's pretend you used a photo that Chaotic uploaded on Deviant Art of a horse. On the photo manipulation you would say something like "monochromexnight.deviantart.com" or just "images from monochromexnight.deviantart.com". You wouldn't need to put "http://monochromexnight.deviantart.com/IMAGEURL.PNG". We just need to be able to find the stock provider. And if you are the photographer just say something like "images – ME" Or “images mine.” On digital paintings, if you referenced a photo heavily or traced it you should credit the stock provider you referenced it from. If you used no reference, you should just say something like "image – me" so we know that. It also really helps to have the original references or images uploaded onto deviantART, Flickr, or some other website, so if we as staff want to do a spot check, you have proof that the image is yours.

We also require you to credit photos that you use, even if the stock provider doesn't require to. I know this can be a pain, but we require this so that we can double check that the images are being used properly if we have to. As the rule states every photo, drawing, all lyrics, poems, quotes, or text taken from somewhere must have full and accurate credits on the picture. So this means that the credits must be easily legible, and totally visible ON the actual picture. In layouts you have a little more room to play with where they are, but they still must be somewhere on the image and not just listed within the page or code.

Lastly, this includes every image that you post on HP (within reason). So pictures for your horses and dogs, layouts, club cards and banners, forum signatures, etc. You are allowed to post memes or icons or other images that are for public use and distribution without credits since things like that don't actually require them. For forum avatars, they are too small for credits, so they can be any image/stock photo/icon that you are free to use OR from the same image as the signature (which should then have credits) on it.

We hope that all of this makes sense and that this guide will help you to understand our specific crediting rules on HP! If you have questions, all of the mods and admins will be able to answer them for you, and will also be able to tell you if your credits are correct before you post the image on the game (and help you to correct them if they aren't). Happy manipping!

When something goes wrong or you find something you find to be offensive or inappropriate, it can sometimes be intimidating to talk to a moderator about it since you're not sure what to expect. This part of the help page is designed to walk you through what to report, how to report it, and what, exactly, to expect form the mod team.

What To Report: You should report any content or player that breaks the rules, makes you uncomfortable, or that you find offensive. Even the seemingly small things can sometimes become a big deal, and need to be reported.

How To Report Something: You can report animals, players, and messages directly to the mod panel for moderators to review! To report animals or players, go to that particular person's/animal's page and look for the "Report?" link towards the top and click it. Then under the default image on animals or under the layout on player pages you will get a form to fill out and explain why you're reporting it and send it. For messages look for the "Report Message" link at the top of the message you want to report. This will take you to another page with a form you can fill out and then send it to us! Once something has been reported to the mod panel, that's all you have to do, an available mod will then deal with the issue accordingly. For anything else, or something you feel needs more explanation, you can always message ANY of the mods or admins for help - if they can't help you with your issue, they will direct you to someone who can. Remember not to report things that are not inappropriate or breaking the rules - if you just don't like someone, block them!

What To Expect: There are a few things to expect when you report something to a mod. The mod might have a lot of questions, since they have to get the full story, so make sure you include any relevant information you can in your report - such as names, ID numbers, money amounts, and dates. Remember that mods cannot act on something that they do not see - which is why you need to REPORT messages and such, they also cannot accept screenshots since they can be pretty easily edited by someone who knows what they're doing.

Mods can help with more than just rule issues too. They can answer your questions and offer you suggestions on different things if you want. Everyone on the staff team is nice, and helpful so make sure you take advantage of this helpful resource!

A Little More Behind-The-Scenes: When a player is warned or otherwise punished, it shows up in their mod log until the end of time. However, after 6 months all non-serious offenses no longer count towards your punishment tally. For official warnings, it will come as a message from account number 1, no matter which mod issued the punishment, in order to protect all mod's identities so no one is treated unfairly for following the rules. Also keep in mind that al mods have a pre-set list of guidelines that they must follow when punishing a player, if you feel something is unfair, you should take it up with an admin to see if they would be willing to lessen the blow. You can ask for your official punishment history from any admin (regular mods cannot give it to you) - this may be helpful if someone gives you an account since the punishment history on an account follows the account, so you'll want to know what's on it since it could end up getting YOU in trouble!

If ever you feel you or someone else has been treated unfairly, or you've got an issue with a mod/admin please take it up with Sam on account number 1! While we are always on alert for such things, HP is a big game and we might not see everything, so we need players to let us know when they are having a problem! We will always hear you out.

Every game has common terms and acronyms that their players use, and we know that it can be confusing to someone who is new to the game - so we've created this page for you to reference! :).

Common Acronyms:AB - This means "auto buy", and when you see this in an auction it means you can bid, or just offer this amount and the seller will automatically sell it to you.BA - This means "Basic Advertising", it's the Basic HP Advertising chat room.BC or BC1 - This means "Basic Chat" and is the basic chat room on HP.BOSA - This is "Basic Off-site Advertising" which is one of the chat channels.CSS - This means "cascading style sheet" which is a type of layout coding used for page layouts on HP.HB - This means "high bid", when people are holding an auction they will often advertise with the higest current bid so people know what it is.Horse/Dog Tix (htix or dtix) - These are horse (htix) and dog (dtix) training tickets.HP - HP means "Horse Phenomena".HPD - HPD means "Horse Phenomena Dollars", this is the fake game currency you use on HP.HTML - Hypertext Markup Language, another type of coding used on HP layouts.LF - Means "looking for", like looking for tickets, horses, services, graphics, etc.MSG - This means "message", like "message me".OBO - This means "or best offer". When someone is selling something they might say $10,000 obo, which means they will take $10,000 now, or consider any other offers you have.PP - Means "player points", these are the points you get on your account when your animals gain points.SB - This means "starting bid", people use this in an auction setting to indicate the lowest bid, or starting bid, they would like people to place on what they are selling.TV or TV# - TV means "trade votes", and if you see it with a number next to it, that's how many votes the player is willing to trade. When people run for president in the clubs they will often "trade votes" with other players who are also running in a club for free.100k - If you see a number followed by a K, this means thousand. So 100k is 100,000, and 10k is 10,000.

Common Terms:Admin - An admin is a staff member on the game who has more power than a regular moderator. They can do things like de-agings, adding breeds, changing genders, and resetting passwords. They also make the final decisions in disciplinary situations.Bil - This means billion, usually referring to money.Exclusive/Non-Exclusive - This refers to voting in clubs. An exclusive vote is a vote with the promise that they will only vote for you in that club. A non-exclusive vote is a vote, but they may vote for your competition as well. Exclusive votes generally cost more.Mill - This means million, usually referring to dollars or points.Mod - This is a moderator, they are here on HP to help enforce the rules and keep the game safe. They also help with site-wide events and contests, and are always here to answer your questions!Pic - This is short for picture, like the images you put on your horses or dogs.Premi - This is a generally accepted term for an upgraded account, it's short for "premium".